The Top 10 World Cup 2010 video games

With a whole 23 days still to go until the World Cup and an enormous 2 or 3 hours wait between some of the matches, we're all going to need a way of passing the time on the sofa. So, what better way to do just that while putting right some of the scores that hopefully won't go the wrong way, than by getting your console out and cracking open a few World Cup video games. Here's our list of those to pick from for 2010.

2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa

The obvious place to start here is with the FIFA branded official game which, as it goes, is very good indeed. You get to play with any one of 199 teams out of the 204 nations that entered the competition, with the five absentees only missed for purely comedy reasons. No offence intended to the Papua New Guinean FA.

There's a few improved features from previous versions of this video game dynasty with injuries now possible outside of matches, a home advantage with fatigue for games at altitude and a composure effect in penalty shoot outs. The other advantage, of course, is that the game offers full naming rights to the players along with the true environments of the 10 stadia to be used in the finals and 55 old school World Cup scenarios to play through. Plenty of fun and should certainly keep you busy until the next Premier League season begins.

PES 2010

Time and time again, Pro Evolution Soccer comes out on top over the FIFA games as the football video gamer's game of choice. The downside of Konami's family is that they rarely have the licenses to properly name the teams and players. Fortunately, there's not so much of a problem with that for the national teams. There's no World Cup 2010 part of the game as such but playing the National Team Cup is essentially the same. There are a still not quite as many playable nations, but all the major ones you'd never want to use are up for grabs. The only real downside is that this game is quite a few months old now and the new one will be coming out some time before the end of the year.

Real Football 2009

New, Real Football 2009, most certainly ain't. The trouble is that if you happen to own a Nintendo DS/DSi there are less options for World Cup games than you might imagine. In fact, the only genuine choice is FIFA World Cup 2006 and we're not going to suggest you start playing that. So, instead that leaves you with either the straight FIFA 2010 game or this slightly more imaginative Real Football 2009. The game actually plays very much like the FIFA titles with really quite tight graphics for a 2-year-old game but, despite Spain's Cesc Fabregas appearing on the cover, it suffers from the same rights issues as the PES series. Your best bet is probably to buy a new console.

3D Penalty World Cup

3D Penalty World Cup is a pretty simple game really. What did you expect from an iPhone app? Pick one of 32 teams and guide them through what would be one of the most stale World Cups in memory as every single one of the fixtures ends in a penalty shoot out. You can do a two player version where you switch your touch or phone to one another before tapping the screen at the right time to select power and the right time for accuracy. Bob's you're uncle and the keeper gets football pie all over his shirt.

Pure Football

There's not an awful lot to tell about Pure Football just yet as it's coming out in the next few days, but the premiss is an interesting one. The idea is that referees are rubbish because they rob you of victories. So instead, 17 countries are going to slug it out old school style playing five-a-side with no annoying man in black to get in the way. There'll be no red cards, no yellows but whether you can get to the level of rugby tackling the opposition to the ground has not been established yet. The game features 230 real players (well, pixel real anyway) including 17 legendary footballers. So far Pele and Alexi Lalas have been confirmed. Yeah. Alexi Lalas.

The Ultimate World Cup Quiz 2006

So, it's old. It's the Ultimate World Cup Quiz 2006. We noticed. But of course World Cup trivia is largely old anyway. You just might have to avoid the question of how many times Italy has won the competition and who the leading all time World Cup goal scorer is. Apart from that, you might just be picking yourself up a bargain of a title. So then, without looking it up, which player has scored more goals in a single World Cup finals than any other? Answers in the comments, and no cheating now.

World Cup Quiz

Platforms

Android

Publisher

Urbian

Price

Free

World Cup Quiz for Android rather does what it says on the tin, only in a completely rock hard way. If you can remember, or have any interest in learning, the exact scorelines in each of the matches ever since 1930, then this is the game for you. Otherwise, it's best avoided.

World Cup 2010 Free Kick Challenge

You've got to love good Flash games and that's exactly what Mousebreaker.com spends its time creating. In this one, you pick a country and then attempt to beat them purely with free kicks. The harder the country is to beat, the more you have to put past them within the given space of time. Lots of bending the ball around the wall fun and as addictive as you'd hope it to be.

World Cup Combo 2010

A newer version of a Mousebreaker classic which combines a few of its other Flash games to come up with World Cup Combo 2010. You have 90 imaginary minutes to work the ball up to your strikers by a series of accurate and rather tricky mouse clicks until you finally get the chance to finish it in the style that one fears all too many of the current England strikers are unable to do. Plenty of fun and annoyance blended together.

Super Web Soccer

Anyone who remembers the old Tecmo football games or the Football Champs title from Taito will enjoy Super Web Soccer. The game has the same kind of wonderful stick the ball to your feet game play and it's dangerously easy to solo run your way around the entire pitch. At the same time, it's still fast and tricky to play and delivers enough in the way acrobatic volleys to make it a desktop winner. Just a shame about the tiny window you have to play it through.

You

So, what have we missed? What are your favourite World Cup games doing the rounds at the moment or are you developing one for release yourself? Let us know in the comments below.